Fourth of July stripes and flowers

Happy 4th!! It is that red-white-and-blue time of year again. Last year I did a skittlette mani. After a year of practice and learning I feel a bit more creative and ambitious so did stripes and blue flower "stars". The mani definitely looks better from a far. The macro settings just makes the stripes look all wobbly!

The base is the gelicious French White gel polish that I wrote about in the last post. Since this is basically dry and finished after curing I started with the tape mani for the stripes. Two pieces of tape on each nail. The tips were then painted in Color Club Ruby Slippers, tape removed immediately. The great thing about the gel base is that I could go in with non-acetoner remover and clean up the stripes if a smudge went over the tape, or the tape line was not super clean. They still look wobbly, though. Ruby Slippers is a glitter based red, so the flecks of glitter get in the way sometimes.

Using acrylics and the one-stroke method I painted dark-light-blue flowers randomly on the lower part of my nails. I added some random Ruby Slipper dots in the middle of the flowers. I applied OPI Which is Witch? in the white stripe and also dabbed some glitter in the flowers.

Out the Door sealed the deal. Any acrylic work really pops after top coating. I did wait awhile, though, as didn't want to smear the stripes. So this is what I will be wearing at the market this Saturday and into next week. This afternoon I have a Glammy Mani birthday party for seven wee seven year old girls - how fun! They have asked for a rainbow colour selection, the birthday girl's fav colour is "magenta". How cool is that? Probably can't even spell it, but she knows what she likes!

right hand

Now that this is totally dry I have added a cured gelicious top coat to the mani. I did not file or scuff up the surface. I just totally cleaned my nails with alcohol - another tip: when you do this also press back the cuticle so that your cuticle line is freed up with a smidgen of space. That gives the gel some place to grip.
My reasons for this is that at the bday party I will be using polish remover on the wee girls and if I go to the market tomorrow (giant rain forecast, boo!), the same applies. This way I can use non acetone remover and have no worries that my nails will still look great!